Wanted: Postdocs for new funding initiative of Volkswagen Foundation
From 2015 on, scientists from all over the world will use the X-ray flashes of the European XFEL to make things visible that no researcher has ever seen. Until then, the free-electron laser LCLS at SLAC in California will be the most powerful X-ray laser. Researchers have been gaining experience with this facility since September 2009. To ensure that this know-how will also be available in Germany when the European XFEL starts up, the Volkswagen Foundation offers young scientists the opportunity to carry out research in Stanford for up to two years, followed by further funding in Germany, for a total of three years. These grants will be provided within the new funding initiative “Free-electron laser science: Peter Paul Ewald Fellowships at LCLS in Stanford“.
“We welcome this important programme of the Volkswagen Foundation, which will greatly benefit future research at the European XFEL,” said Prof. Massimo Altarelli, Managing Director of the European XFEL GmbH. “Young scientists will have the opportunity to gain experience with the new free-electron lasers at SLAC’s LCLS facility, which they could then also put to good use at the European XFEL starting in 2015. This initiative of the Volkswagen Foundation thus comes at exactly the right moment.”
The Peter Paul Ewald Fellowships – named after Peter Paul Ewald (1888-1985), a pioneer of X-ray methods – aim at postdoctoral researchers who want to pursue novel research ideas at LCLS or the future European XFEL and who strive for an extended research stay in Stanford. The grants are awarded for initially three years. Three application rounds are planned between 2011 and 2013. The deadline for the first application round is 25 January 2011.
Details on the funding possibilities and the application and review process can be found on the hompage of the Volkswagen Foundation.